Let’s travel back to the early millennium when Kodak announced that people had set a new, all-time record for photos, reportedly taking 80 billion pictures worldwide. Fast forward to 2015, and market research suggested global consumers would be taking more than ONE TRILLION digital photos that year, definitely proving that social media and technology have changed the way we interact with photography and pictures.
Most of us control what we share on social media in order to put forth a certain kind of image— and that’s not an opinion, it’s a statement backed by stats. In a survey of more than 2000 people, 75% admitted to lying about themselves on social media, with only 18% saying their Facebooks or Twitters were an accurate portrayal of their lives. On Instagram, a social media network devoted to pictures, the issue of misrepresentation seems particularly prevalent, motivating Ditch The Label, an anti-bullying organization working in the USA, UK, and Mexico, to create a 3-minute video “showing the reality behind the many picture-perfect Instagram photos”, Peta Pixel reported.
“The video features scenes of people spending lots of time and effort in capturing one apparently ‘natural’ or ‘off the cuff’ image. But the shots are contrived and not an accurate representation of what’s going on,” described Will Nichols of Peta Pixel.
Brazilian wedding and family photographer Gilmar Silva also decided to showcase the prominence of misrepresentation in photography using a unique photo series. The 25-year-old who has worked in photography for the past four years is known for his soft, feminine shots of women taken around his home city of Cascavel, Parana, reports The Sun UK.
His photo project, entitled LUGARxPHOTO (or ‘place and photo’) goes behind-the-scenes, showing that professional photo shoots, like social media pictures, are not always as they appear. Using a combination of behind-the-scenes photos and unedited snaps, Silva shows the lengths and efforts required to really get that perfect shot. Here are 30 of photos from the LUGARxPHOTO collection.
Isn’t amazing what a little bit of creativity, dedication, and hard work can accomplish?
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